Construction Bristol among world’s priciest places to build new homes

BRISTOL has become the eighth most expensive city in the world for the cost of constructing new buildings.

- Alex SEABROOK Local democracy reporter

Building in the city is more expensive than Dublin, Hong Kong, Manchester, Birmingham and Los Angeles. Dutch consultants Arcadis analysed the costs of building in major cities around the world for their annual index, with Geneva topping the list, ahead of London in second place.

A new taskforce of councillors at Bristol City Council will be set up to explore how the rising costs of construction could affect how many affordable homes can be built in new developments, if at all. An update was given to the economy and skills policy committee on Monday, July 28.

Alex Hearn, director of economy of place, said: “Development often moves in cycles, which are closely aligned to wider economic conditions. Sometimes there are peaks and troughs and sometimes there are blips. We may be experiencing something that isn’t a blip and actually things have changed, because of accelerated construction cost inflation.”

The taskforce will read evidence papers and hear from staff and developers, then debate what options the council has for getting more affordable housing built despite the cost of construction.